


Fifteen men on the Fire Nation's chest

by avrelia



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Avatar Rare Pair Exchange, F/F, Pirates, Stolen Treasures, Women by the campfire, sword fights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29026800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avrelia/pseuds/avrelia
Summary: June the bounty hunter is tasked with finding some cargo that the Fire Nation has lost while retreating. Surprise, surprise!  It is stolen by the pirates led by an awesome lady captain, Jiang. The plot ensues.The prompt was to have adventure and sword-fights, and I love adventures and sword fights, so that's what I tried to do here.
Relationships: June/Jiang
Comments: 5
Kudos: 7
Collections: Avatar Rarepair Exchange 2021





	Fifteen men on the Fire Nation's chest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunnymygal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnymygal/gifts).



> Jiang is a newcomer to the canon world of Avatar the Last Airbender, as she first appeared in the latest comic Katara and the Pirate Silver. We know very little about her - she is a captain of the Pirate ship called The Flying Wombat (Those who read the comics know that by the end she is left with the FN ship that I had to name myself. She is a woman in her 20s-30s who was doing an honest pirate work all her life. She is of Earth Kingdom, and loves her country, but not its government. And I immediately thought that she and June should meet.
> 
> here you can read more about the comic and see how Jiang looks like:
> 
> https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Katara_and_the_Pirate%27s_Silver

It was a simple task – to find the cargo that disappeared while moving between point A to point B. And as it often happened with simple tasks, it went wrong from the very beginning.

She preferred to search for people. With Nyla’s talents it was usually a matter of how fast they could move after sniffing an object to wherever their prize was hiding. However, after the war ended, and the Fire Nation army was withdrawing there were less clients ready to pay large bounties to find deserters, or spies, or whoever else they had to find fast. Non-paying debtors were still a thing, always and forever, but their creditors wanted to get money, not spend them on finding a person that cannot pay anything. So June welcomed the task to find cargo that the retreating Fire Nation had lost along the way. The Fire Lord, former Prince Pouty, paid well and was generous about conditions.

The first step was to find people responsible for cargo on all steps of cargo’s journey. It was easy enough. The problem was that none of them knew anything useful. A couple of dozens of boxes and trunks left the former military base and started their slow travel on the train of wagons pulled by comodo-rhinos toward the seaport where they hand to be checked, counted, and sorted. Some of it was to be turned over to Earth Kingdom officials as a part of reparation, and some was to be returned to Fire Nation on a freight ship.

The komodo rhinos had arrived in appointed time, but without any cargo. The wagons were filled with rocks. Rhinos’ handlers swore they had no idea what could happen, and they checked the cargo ever so often. Of course, upon realizing that nothing could show them in the best light, the handlers admitted that they didn’t check on cargo often enough. And subsequently were charged with negligence. However, it did nothing to get the cargo back.

June poured over the maps, tracing the road that the cargo was supposed to follow. Mostly open space, no dense forests, no mountains and caves that were usually hiding highwaymen and their loot. However, the last known place camping spot where handlers swore that the cargo was still in its place, was just after crossing the river. The river was a dangerous place. Even shirshus had some trouble getting smells over the water. There was also a matter of pirates on that river.

Personally, June had nothing against pirates. Some of them were perfectly lovely people, she supposed – she had yet to meet one that could be considered perfectly lovely, but it was possible they existed. After all, only a year ago nobody believed in the existence of the Avatar. She didn’t cross her ways with pirates often – once in a blue moon, during a large brawl in her favorite tavern, or when a person she had to deliver to her clients ran away to join pirates. By June’s calculations about half of Northern Water Tribe pirates consisted of runaway brides (and no, apparently nobody wanted them back badly enough to pay her).

To extract the lost cargo from pirates would be difficult. On the other hand, she couldn’t be expected to haul cargo all by herself. So as long as she found it and made sure it stayed where it could be picked up by Fire Nation, she had done her job and could collect the bounty.

* * *

The first part went easy. She and Nyla traced the last stop by the river where the cargo was still on the carts, she learned which pirate ships frequented that river, and where their crews were to be found, and that the one she was looking for was most likely the “Smoking WolfBat.”

But now she was standing in front of their pirate captain, ready to fight. And intensely annoyed at the situation.

The captain tried to stare June down and when it didn’t work, smirked. Neither smirks nor a pair of beautiful green eyes could work on June in a fight. But a pair of sabers just might. Especially since Nyla was still in her stable. June much preferred to fight on Nyla’s back, using her shirshu’s speed and strength, and the paralytic venom to win, but she was never without a trick, so she took out her jian sword and a knife.

Her opponent attacked first, but June stepped aside lightly, letting the pirate woman to fall through. The woman turned on a heel and grinned at her. The gall of that pirate! June made another small step for a better position and parried the next blow. There was an opening and June used it to lunge, but the pirate easily avoided being hit. Another parry, step aside, feint, lunge. Parry, turn, step, lunge. Step, step, feint, lunge, parry, turn…

“I have a feeling you are not putting enough effort into this fight.” The pirate smirked. “I am downright offended.”

“Maybe you should try harder instead of complaining.” June barely had time to jump to the side to avoid getting slashed. That wasn't a smart thing to say during a sword fight, but the woman’s smirk was distracting. June idly wondered whether she did on purpose, and almost missed another strike. She redoubled her efforts, and saw that the pirate started to get tired. It felt like a dance, or to be fair, two different dances with different goals and different music they were dancing around each other.

“Someone is not getting anywhere close” the pirate woman panted.

In the corner of her vision June saw flashes of red and green. “What are you talking about? I am exactly where I am supposed to be, doing what has to be done, to return the cargo.”

“That’s an interesting position.”

“While we were enjoying each other, the messenger hawk delivered my message about the cargo, and now the party responsible for delivery is here.”

“What?” The pirate stopped abruptly and turned to see a girl in green armored dress with face painted in white and red, with several Fire Nation people in red standing by the pile of honestly stolen crates.

“Hey, June! Is that all cargo?”

“I think so. Be a dear and check it yourself, I am a bit busy here.” But the pirate woman didn’t attack anymore, and June relaxed a little and took a deep breath.

“Fine.” The girl with the painted face, the Kyoshi warrior, June remembered, started checking her list.

“How is that fine? Those crates should not leave the Earth Kingdom! Why does the Fire Nation have to take and take and take from us? The war is over, whatever it is in those crates, people here heed it more! Most likely it was stolen from them anyway.” The pirate woman now sounded bitter.

The Kyoshi girl looked at her with unreadable expression, then started reading from her list: “The crated numbered 1, 7 and 19 to load on a ship for Kyoshi island, as agreed upon, the rest of the cargo is to be shipped to Taku as per schedule number 5, signed as a part of Harmony Restoration agreements. The locked chest with General Xue personal collection to be delivered to the Fire Lord personally. Any questions?”

“Where is this chest?” One of the men in the Fire Nation clothes asked.

They started looking for something that could be the aforementioned chest, but couldn’t find it. The Kyoshi girl checked and re-checked her list, counting the crates and the boxes in front of them.

“Well, here is the thing. The chest must be found. Here is a partial payment for the found cargo, but the rest of the agreed sum will only be paid upon the delivery of the chest.”

“To the Fire Lord?”

“Yes, to the Fire Lord, through me. Or, it could be handed over to Toph Beifong, Sokka or Katara of the Water Tribe, or the Avatar, but the payment will come from the Fire Lord, so it would take longer to get paid.”

“Ok, I’ll get the chest.” June looked at the pirate woman, who obviously calculated in her mind the most lucrative course of action. “hey! I have a business proposition for you.”

“Let you chase the chest and go home?”

“No, work together instead of against each other and share the payment. Let’s discuss over lunch.”

“You are paying for the lunch.”

“Sure.”

They left the cargo in the care of the Fire Nation folk, June whistled to call Nyla, and went to the nearest tavern, eyeing each other suspiciously.

* * *

Soon they sat across each other by the table, waiting for their food. June heard Nyla’s soft noises just behind the window, and the world was fine. It would have been easier to use her in a fight instead of getting all close and personal with swords, but after that unpleasant incident when she herself was accidentally hit with shirshu’s venom and groped for her troubles, she used Nyla only in serious cases. Besides, getting all close and personal was surprisingly… pleasant. Maybe she should get into sword fights more often. Or maybe it was this woman in front of her, mumbling a song under her breath.

_“Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—  
...Yo-ho-ho, and some cactus juice!  
Drink and the demons had done for the rest—  
...Yo-ho-ho, and some cactus juice!”_

Now June had an ample opportunity to study her opponent, and she liked what she saw. The woman in front of her was about her age, not exactly beautiful, but pleasant to look at. She had two scars on her face, but in June’s opinion, scars didn’t ruin appearances. They just meant that life happened, and a person survived whatever shit was thrown their way. The pirate woman’s hair was cut really short, which looked weird, but also gave her a strangely soft feeling, and June wondered if it was as soft to touch as it looks.

“Have you ever had cactus juice?” The pirate woman asked her.

“Yes, when I was young and stupid and wanted to try things my father had said were bad for me. He was right, in that instance, as I hate not having a clear mind. You?”

“Yes. There were moments I wanted to forget everything. But that would require too much cactus juice, and my crew depends on me remembering who I am. What is your name, anyway?”

“June.” the server brought plates with some mystery meat on them. It smelled delicious, and June decided she didn’t care about the source of the meat. “And you?”

“Jiang, captain of the Flying Wolfbat.”

“Flying Wolfbat? I thought your ship is called the Smoking Wolfbat.”

“Oh that is a temporary replacement. Had to make do.”

Nyla looked into the window and swapped the meat from Jiang’s plate with her long tongue.

“Nyla, be nice to Jiang. For now.”

“Who is that?” Jiang took half of the contents from June’s plate.

“My shirshu, Nyla.”

“Your pet?”

“My family. My work partner for seventeen years.”

Jiang nodded. “My family is my crew. We’ve been together… I’ve lost count of the years, actually. You can say always.”

They ate in silence, savoring the meal.

When the tea and cakes were brought in, Jiang leaned slightly towards her. “So what do you suggest? About that chest?”

June’s eyes darted to Jiang’s chest. It was nice. It was not what they were talking about. “Find the chest together, return it, get paid, and split the payment in half. Way better than trying to spoil the fun for each other and not get anything.”

“Why should we return the chest when we find it? Maybe it is full of gold?”

“As I understand it has some collector’s items that the General Whatever stole during the war that would be hard to fence for good money.”

“If I wanted a chest of gold to be returned to me, I would also let it be known that it’s full of stuff one can’t sell for a better price.”

June shrugged. “Why didn’t you open the chest when you had a chance?”

Jiang sighed. “It was a really good chest. Not one simple lock, but lots of metal bindings. Didn’t have time to work through them.”

“Well, at least it means that whoever stole it from you also didn’t have time to open it. Do you have any idea who could have done it?”

“Some. Can’t your shirshu find it fast? I heard they could smell anything?”

“A shirshu needs the smell of a human.”

“Ok. Let’s have a look if we could find something that can smell like a human who took it.”

* * *

They were back to the docks. After half an hour of looking around, June hadn't found either the chest or anything that could point to its thief. Nothing she could give Nyla to smell and be on the way. Which was annoying, but she had it worse, and some detective work would solve the problem. However, Jiang emerged from wherever, grinning and waving horribly smelling rugs.

“I knew it! Even I can smell that it is from the Mad Platypus Bear crew! Their ship was here in the morning, and now the bastards are nowhere to be seen. I am told they sailed off to the ocean about two hours ago.”

June got the rugs and offered them to Nyla. The shirshu nodded towards the north. “Nyla thinks they have turned towards the northern coast. Which makes sense, they would have to sell the loot, and it’s the best option. Your ship probably can try and chase them by the water, and me and Nyla will try to get them on land.”

“And if you are right, my ship will never get to you in time to assure getting our part in payment or the chest contains. Nice, but no.”

June shrugged. “You are welcome to join me and Nyla. She can carry us both with ease.”

Jiang considered for a short while. “Give me ten minutes.” She disappeared inside her ship, and, much to June’s surprise, reappeared in exactly ten minutes with a small traveling bag.

“Let’s go.”

Soon enough Nyla was running towards the goal, with June riding in her usual place and Jiang behind her, holding onto her waist. June occasionally had somebody else on her shirshu, as much as she preferred to ride alone. But now she found herself enjoying her company so much more. In fact, she felt thrilled and eager and downright looking forward to the future. ‘I wonder where will it all lead us?’ she thought, smiling as she felt strong hands holding tight on her hips and breasts occasionally brushing off her back.

* * *

Nyla was fast, and by the end of the day they reached the village where Mad Platypus Bear was berthed. In several large leaps the shirshu was on the ship, snarling at the crew. Then she sniffed around and moved in the direction of one of the men on deck.

“No need to panic. We are here to pick up the Fire Nation chest you had stolen. Give us the chest and no one will get hurt.”

“I don’t think so. It is our honestly stolen loot, and you have no claim on it.” One of the pirates said with a scowl.

“You have no right to it!” Another one screamed.

Someone laughed. “Should have looked better after that chest if you didn’t want it stolen.”

“And what are you going to do about it, anyway?” The first one said.

Now, that was a good question. June made a fast count. There were about a dozen on deck, and probably someone, but not many, below it. She turned to Jiang. “Nyla and me, we’ll deal with these ones, you go find the chest.”

Jiang nodded and slipped off as June started circling her whip above her head. The first man who came closer got whipped, the second got a lick from Nyla with a good portion of shishu venom in it. Jiang disappeared inside the ship.

The rest of the Mad Platypus Bear crew looked at each other and ran towards June all together. She was fine with those odds. She and Nyla turned around, with Nyla generously licking everything she could reach, and June helping her shirshu by moving people closer to her with her whip. Soon enough everyone on the deck was lying paralyzed. They had about fifteen minutes to finish their business here.

June jumped off and called Jiang. “Hey! How are you down there?”

“I could use some help.”

“You guard them, girl.” June scratched Nyla’s head and headed down the deck. There, she discovered Jiang fighting two guys and trying to move the chest they were searching for at the same time. June took her knives out and joined the fight. Fighting together, not against each other was a much better experience, she found. While they didn’t know each other that well and could only guess the next move, they immediately relied on fighting experience they both had, and used it not to be in each other's way. In close quarters June’s short knives were more useful, but Jiang had more experience in fighting on a ship. On the other hand, the guys they were fighting also had pretty good experience. Finally, June got an opening and managed to wound her opponent in the ribs area. He groaned and fell clutching at his side.

“Get the chest to Nyla! I’ll cover!” She said to Jiang and moved forward. Their arms brushed and she saw Jiang winking at her. The pirate woman grabbed the chest and walked upstairs, with June backing after her. The other pirate went to check on his comrade, then ran at June. It was a mistake, since she was ready to meet him. She leaned into the wall and let her foot out. The guy stumbled and fell, trying to grab June’s legs. In a second, her sword was at his throat.

“I don’t want to kill you, but believe me, I will. If you move.”

“Let’s go!” Her partner shouted from above.

June jumped and ran up to Nyla, where Jiang was already securing their chest.

Another moment, and she and Jiang were riding Nyla away from the sea, the village and towards their deserved reward.  
_“We will rant and we'll roar like true Northern sailors, We'll rant and we'll roar all on the salt sea.”_ Jiang sang cheerfully behind her back, and June almost started murmuring along the song.

* * *

It was getting late, and Nyla started slowing down. It was a busy day for the shirshu, and honestly, they all needed the rest. June looked around. They were far enough not to worry about pursuit, but there were no inns in sight, either.

“Do you mind spending the night in the open? Nyla needs her beauty sleep.”

“Not particularly.” Jiang stretched behind June’s back. “I am ready for fall off myself. Hasn’t been riding this much since forever. Now I am sore in all kinds of interesting places.”

June wasn’t sore, she was well used to covering large distances on her shirshu, but she remembered the feeling well, and winced in sympathy. She chose a decent spot away from the road and as soon as Nyla arrived there, she started setting up the camp.

Jiang made the campfire, and now was sitting awkwardly, glaring at the chest they spent a day to retrieve.

June searched her first aid satchel, and found a small small jar. “Here, it’s a soothing cream.”

Jiang accepted the jar, grumbling “I should have thought about it myself. Got the wound dressing and such, but didn’t think about riding problems.”

June shrugged. “I don’t do well at ships. Nyla is twitchy and nervous when she is confined, and all the smells feel wrong for her.”

“Did you spend much time on ships?” Jiang tried to get up and winced.

“I’ll go find water. You make yourself comfortable.” She took Nyla. “And yes, a little. Sometimes, the job leads us beyond the continent.” Then she turned and left, allowing the pirate to deal with her wounds in privacy.

When she returned, Jiang looked much more comfortable.

They made soup for dinner with some dried supplies they both had in their bags. It smelled of weird fish and spices to June, but she had it worse. Nyla wandered off to hunt for herself.

After the dinner, June found a comfortable place to stretch on the ground and watched Jiang trying to open the chest. She seemed pretty strong, but neither brute force nor swords worked on the metal bands circling the chest.

“I am going to find out what is inside that troublesome chest.” Jiang winced trying to find the best point of leverage to pull them off. “I need something stronger. A metalbender would have been nice.”

“Will have to do with a shirshu.”

“Is she strong enough?”

“You’ve seen her today. She is strong enough.”

“How does one acquire a shirshu these days? They are almost mythical, I’ve only heard of them, never seen one before.”

“No idea. I think there is a wild population, but it is really small. A baby shirshu was a payment my father got for one of his most difficult jobs. It was seventeen years ago.”

“Who was your father?”

“An Earth Kingdom bounty hunter, naturally.” June smiled. “We walked the land together ever since I remember myself.”

Jiang didn’t ask what happened to him. “And your mother?”

“She died when I was very young. Apparently I look like her. What about you?”

“I grew up on the river. And I was on my Flying Wolfbat for so long, that everything before that just doesn’t exist.”

June nodded and didn’t say anything. Happy childhoods were rare, if they even existed at all. She got up and made tea for both of them.

When she sat, nursing her hot cup, Nyla returned, sated and happy.

June called to her, “Nyla, girl, can you help me out there?” and pointed to the chest.

The shirshu sniffed at the chest, then grabbed the metal band with her tongue and pulled, the band came off, then another one, then the rest. “Thank you, dear girl.” June scratched Nyla’s forehead, and the shirshu happily murmured.

Jiang, meanwhile, picked the lock open, and lifted the cover of the chest. Her expression was not happy.

“It’s not gold, I presume?” June ventured a guess.

“No, but it looks really old. Definitely collectors’ stuff. Might fetch a hefty price on a black market.”

June peered into the chest. It was full of carefully packed items that indeed looked old and unfamiliar. She picked one of them, a small statue of a woman in a meditating pose, made of some translucent stone. Woman’s face was serene and beautiful, her long hair falling to her waist, her forehead tall and made to look bigger by starting the hairline at the top of a woman’s head, on the forehead there was an arrow etched in stone, representing Airbender’s tattoo.

Now that June had some idea what she was looking for, she searched through the contents of the chest. Her suspicion was correct—most items were definitely of Air Nomads’ making. The rest she couldn’t be sure but probably belonged to the Air Nomads well.

“Well, that settles it. We are returning the chest to the kid.”

“The kid?” Jiang repeated her words in confusion.

“The Avatar. He should have it back, he doesn’t have much else left of his people.”

Jiang nodded slowly. “Yes. Now the return directions make sense. The Avatar gets his treasures, and the Fire Lord pays. Fine by me.”

* * *

June lay on the grass and gazed in the starry sky. The night was calm and sweet, and she felt perfectly content and at ease. The campfire crackled nearby, warm and friendly, occasionally sending fountains of sparks up, towards the stars. Occasional animal noises and rusting of leaves punctuated the quiet. She loved the moments like that – the work is well done, the reward is assured, and the time was perfect to relax and enjoy simply being there, on Earth, alive. She usually had only Nyla to share moments like that. Now – she turned and looked at the figure on the other side of the campfire. Jiang was stretching her limbs, her movements assured and carefree and singing something that sounded like _‘Sovay, sovay...’_ Her voice was pleasant and kind of boyish.

“Are you feeling better?”

Jiang laughed. “Yes! Thank you, it feels magical, how all pain just disappeared the moment I put the cream on.”

“Well, it will come back, the pain relief is temporary, but it helps the healing. Keep the jar, I rarely need it, and I know where to get some more.”

“Yeah, I don’t get much riding action these days. Might be useful in case things will change. Thank you, June.” She stretched again with the groan. In the uneven light of the fire she looked like an ageless boy, or a spirit, strong and mischievous.

“Do you often get mistaken for a man?” June suddenly was curious.

“Occasionally. I don’t care. Sometimes I definitely feel like a woman, but mostly, it all just doesn’t make much sense. I am me, that’s all there is.”

“I know what you mean. It does make little sense when you think about it really hard. I have no idea who women are, but I know I am one. I don’t care whether I am dating a man or a woman. One can say I am all about equal opportunity.” Why did she feel the need to tell that now? Oh, well.

Jiang looked at her with vague something in her eyes. Hopefully, not mockery. “Sure, if I ever meet anyone who wants to date you, I’ll tell them that.”

To hide from slight embarrassment June got up to make herself another cup of tea. She felt Jiang’ eyes following her.

“I like your hair.” Jiang said.

“Thanks.” June was pleased by the compliment, but not sure how to return it. “Why did you cut yours?”

“Oh, it got burned once, several years ago.” Jiang touched her head, as if checking that it was fine, now. “As it happens, you know.” Things and people did catch fire quite often during the war with the Fire Nation. “So I cut it all off. And then I liked it. Less bother, and I love my look, and people get nervous, which is a benefit in my line of work.. you know?”

“Making people nervous is helpful.” June now felt on a safer ground. “People start making stupid mistakes and say stupid things.

“So… you are always alone? With your Nyla?” Jiang asked.

“Most of the time.” June shrugged. “There are some friends and some usual company I enjoy.”

“Any family?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Do you feel lonely?”

“No, I like it, most of the time.” It was the truth, she was fine on her own, and the idea of constantly being with some other people seemed terrifying. But sometimes she felt… a longing for something else. She didn’t know how to explain it or even whether she should try to explain it. Instead, she asked. “Is it weird, to be always with other people, on the ship?”

“We are used to it. And we like it. Those who don’t - don’t stay on the ship for long. Then we also give each other space when needed. And there are shore leaves and life outside of the ship.”

“Where is your ship now? I thought it was to follow Mad Platypus Bear by sea?”

“I’ve left them a message, they’ll know where to pick me up. We are going back, right?”

“Yes. I am planning to give the chest to the Kyoshi warrior and get paid.”

“Good plan, I love getting paid...”

They talked some more. Jiang told a story of chasing a scorpion monkey and then being chased by a swarm of scorpion monkeys. June told her favorite anecdotes of their arm-wrestling competition. Jiang told how her crew escaped several Fire Nation ships and the Earth Kingdom ships at the same time. June told her how Nyla once tried to eat food leftovers from a Fire Nation festival and almost went crazy from smells and tastes… June felt she hadn’t had such a good time for a while.

There was a lull in their conversation, and June was enjoying the comfortable quiet by the dying fire. Some insects flew by her head, an unknown bird started screeching, someone howled in the distance… Nyla made some grumpy noises settling for a sleep.

Jiang started snoring.

June minutely wondered whether she should have grabbed the chest, jumped on Nyla and run away to get her reward in full. After all, Jiang was the one who stole the cargo in the first place, why should she be rewarded? But if she hadn’t stolen it, June hadn’t gotten the job – and the reward – at all. And, most importantly, June really didn’t want to leave her like that. She could admit to herself she started to enjoy Jiang’s company quite a bit.

Having settled on the course of action – or non-action, June got up, poured water over the campfire, checked on Nyla, got into her sleeping bag and was immediately asleep.

* * *

The road back was uneventful. Jiang was singing most of the time, sometimes her songs tilted towards bawdy, sometimes towards romantic. _Sovay, Sovay all on a day, She dressed herself in man's array With a sword and bow all by her side To meet her true love, to meet her true love, away did ride._ Her grip on June’s waist was firmer and more comfortable. June decided that she liked it. Nyla made a good speed and soon enough they were back in the town where the Kyoshi warrior was waiting with the reward for the stolen chest.

“I see someone’s opened the chest. Is everything inside?”

“I’ve opened it myself. Everything we’ve found there is intact. I don’t need Air Nomads’ treasures.”

“Neither do I. Now, if the treasures belonged to my people, it would have been different.” Jiang scowled, but the Kyoshi warrior only rolled her eyes and didn’t say anything.

She handed June a bag with money. “Here. Thank you for your help.”

“Send my regards to the Fire Lord Pouty.”

“With pleasure.” The Kyoshi warrior bowed to her and left, only slightly struggling with carrying the chest with treasures.

June turned to Jiang. “I think we should go somewhere more private to divide the payment.”

And so they found themselves sitting on the log just outside of the town and staring ahead. The money was divided fairly, and there was nothing else to connect them, but neither June nor Jiang were eager to leave.

“You know, I didn’t get as much as I wanted from this affair, but I got something much more interesting.” Jiang said suddenly.

June turned to her with a frown and watched Jiang pulling a scroll from her inside pocket.

“When I was looking for the chest on the Mad Platypus Bear, I found this very curious map.”

June looked over the map. It showed a coastline, unfamiliar to her. And a large mark with the set of notes.

“You think it is a treasure map, don’t you?”

“Might be. It is definitely something to investigate.”

“Sounds lovely.”

“So…” Jiang made a weird sound, like a loud sigh, then said quickly. “Would you like to join us?”

“Yes.” June answered before she had time to think about it. “Do you know where it is, exactly?”

“The map is unclear which coast it is. No coordinates to just go and pick it up. We can use your skills.”

“It would be nice.”

“I think it is the beginning of a great friendship.” And Jiang smiled at her so brilliantly, that June felt warm and dizzy.

She turned to face Jiang, and took a deep breath. June knew what she herself wanted, but wasn’t so sure about the other woman. “I am hoping not only friendship, actually.” She leaned in and lightly touched Jiang’s lips with her own. It wasn’t much of a kiss, it was more like a question, an invitation. She leaned back, and, suddenly terrified that she misunderstood everything, waited for the response.

Jiang stopped smiling, watched intently her face for a moment, then, as June was ready to be dead from embarrassment, she put her hands on June’s neck and moved closer for another kiss. This kiss felt awkward but unbelievably sweet. Jiang’s hands were rough and strong, but her lips were soft and welcoming.

“I think I am very much looking forward to whatever will happen.” Jiang managed, just out of breath and grinned.

June grinned back at her. “The future is going to be fascinating.”

**Author's Note:**

> This story made for a lot of first experiences for me. First time my main characters have never met in the canon, first sword fights, etc. I do hope it not all horrible. Please tell me if it is.
> 
> I stole the title from the most obvious place - The Treasure Island. And then I decided to give JIang more songs to sing, so I dug up some of our world's songs and refitted them a little. 
> 
> A bit of clarification, June in the first fight has a short sword and a knife, and in the second one she uses two knives.


End file.
